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Category: Commentary

Commentary; our thought leadership, newsletter notes and long form pieces.

Commentary

Measurement redux

Edition #359 A measurement redux, opportunities in branded content & TikTok. One big thing A trend you may not have seen in the tea leaves is that a lot of measurement companies are being acquired right now. Oribi, Tunity, TVSquared, Playground XYZ & Shareables. And that’s just since December. What’s driving that? The instigator was Apples tracking changes. Forcing many firms to either throw our their existing technology or seek to add deep capabilities. The other area is connected… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
March 4, 2022
Plant Based Diet with Oatly & The Guardian
Plant Based Diet with Oatly & The Guardian
Commentary

Plant Based

Edition #357 The earnings merry go-round, content arbitrage & plant-based diets. One big thing I really enjoyed Ben Thompson’s summation of the digital ad eco-system as of 2022. And how the various pieces have come together in the past year or so. In particular you see Apples changes with ATT, moving spend away from Facebook, and in turn enhancing Amazon’s ad product. Because Amazons data all stays on platform. His macro takes are usually pretty good. We’ve had… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 11, 2022
Commentary

New celebrity

Edition #356 Cameo, Microsofts $10b business and carbon emissions. One big thing Microsoft brought in $10 billion in ad revenue in the last 12 months. For a combined business that is bigger than Snap & Twitter combined. NEW: @Microsoft brought in $10 billion+ in ad revenue in last 12 months (ex TAC), which includes LinkedIn— Comes amid a renewed ad push from the tech firm— Microsoft acquired ATT’s addressable… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 28, 2022
Tech M&A in the roaring 20s
Tech M&A in the roaring 20s
Commentary

Merger Mania

Edition #355 MOAR acquisitions, meme creators turned VC and tools for content creators. One big thing Banker to adtech/martech Terry Kawaja shared this tweet about tech M&A in the roaring 20’s. And it is most of the new news each week, acquisitions all round. And it is exactly like this image, bigger fish picking up a smaller fish, who had already scooped up several smaller fish. Digiday this week dug in to how say the likes of… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 21, 2022
Cash App My First Stock
Cash App My First Stock
Commentary

2022 Begins

Edition #354 Microcosms, acquisition’s and PGA does content marketing. One big thing Welcome to 2022, a year already started with omicron confusion & disruption. Each of us in our microcosms. Microcosm is a great word to sum up operating this year. How can each brand operate in their safe zone. And as each of their competitors pushes that safe zone out, will they follow or not. We had an influx of subscribers at year end, so a warm welcome… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 14, 2022
Commentary

2021 Fin.

Edition #353 Deal mania continues and we have a NFT :O. One big thing For a bit of fun and to say thank you, we minted some Nudge Punk NFTS.  If you’re a regular reader (we’ll check) send over your Solana wallet address and we’ll send you one. Thank you all for subscribing and sharing feedback through the year. If you need to get a wallet, I recommend creating a wallet with Phantom.app which works… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 23, 2021
Commentary

Scale for Scale

Edition #352 Could Vox be the next great content company? One big thing Could Vox be the next great content company? This week they announced the Group Nine acquisition, making for a combined revenue of $700m turnover in 2022. Scale and quality. CEO Jim Bankoff shared: “Scale for scale’s sake is not what’s important but quality combined with scale, which is what this story is about, is going to be an advantage in the marketplace.” But that… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 17, 2021
Commentary

Roblox

Edition #351 Roblox virtual experiences are it right now. One big thing Ralph Lauren launched their new fashion line in Roblox this week with digital only fashion items. As part of their virtual world ‘Winter Escape’.  Universes like Roblox are attractive to companies because they introduce younger users to their brands and give them a chance to see their marketing vision before graduating to real-world products. And traffic has been booming: VF Corp.’s Vans… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 10, 2021
Commentary

End of 2021

Edition #350 14 business days left in the year, what the new year holds. One big thing If you take off between Christmas & New Years, there’s only 14 days left in 2021! What sort of things are you thinking about for the new year? If anything, I’m planning ahead on a few breaks, to keep me fresh. Sorting through the stories the last few months, it’s clear Web3 is going to continue to dominate conversations, with regulatory risk… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 3, 2021
Commentary, This Week in Native Ads

Why Web3

Edition #349 Why are marketers flocking to Web3? Hint: there are now more of us than before. We have a one, maybe two content advisory slots available for the next quarter. If you’d like some help, do ping me. Next week we’re partnering with the Content Writing Jobs newsletter, a great place to post jobs but also if you’re looking for a new gig. One big thing Why are marketers flocking to Web3? And tokens? It’s what… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
November 23, 2021